IDOL Fraud: Gay Contestant Defeated

[The Pecman]

Audiences were stunned on May 20th when married, straight contestant Kris Allen won the American Idol singing competition, beating out longtime favorite, Adam Lambert.

There's already wide speculation on the net that homophobic members of the religious right cast their votes for Allen deliberately to shut out Lambert because of the latter's "glam-rock," flamboyant performances. Many have surmised that Adam is gay -- with rumors fueled after pictures of the singer kissing other men surfaced on the net -- but he has yet to confirm or deny his sexuality.

It certainly seems suspicious to me, because Adam was heavily favored to be the winner for the past 8 weeks. This is easily the biggest upset in the history of the American version of the show, and it's clear to me that supporters of the third runner-up, Danny Gokey, swung the final vote by going for the straight married guy.

Purely on talent alone, there's no question to me that Adam was the clear winner. You just watch: two years from now, let's see who has more hit singles and albums.

Those interested can read this article on CNN. They avoid saying the "G" word, but there's no question to me that this was a factor. And this article on the Huffington Post spells it out very clearly. I ain't imagining this.

Note, BTW, that Adam was most gracious and humble in congratulating Kris -- and also that all four judges (with a combined experience of over 100 years in showbiz) each expected Adam to win. Even Kris said to the crowd, "Adam deserved this [more than me]. I'm sorry."

I demand a recount!

[Madrigal]

AT&T has confirmed 38 MILLION (according to blog comments all over the net) votes for Kris Allen alone from his home state of Arkansas (that's more than 38% of the total votes). I think that would be enough to give anyone the lead. I mean, I love Adam Lambert to death, but there's no way in hell I'm wasting 4 hours of my life in front of a telephone, or texting to my fingers' demise. Truth is, I don't think all those people who adored Adam Lambert spent nearly as long voting for him as the teenagers and momtards that voted for Kris Allen.

Having said that, I KNOW homophobia played a small role in this 'election'. You can see homophobic and transphobic comments on his youtube videos, especially on those done before he became a competitor in AI.

Controversy aside, Adam and Kris seemed to be really good friends. The fact that Adam's smile hasn't faltered since his fall from glory was announced helps all of his fans cope with the loss. I was upset at first, having followed him (though not voted) since his audition, but it honestly doesn't matter. He'll most likely get an inferior contract to Kris Allen's, as it wouldn't look good otherwise, and in the near future his contract will probably be extended depending on his success.

Maddy (:

[Cole Parker]

Am I reading this right? 38,000,000 votes from Arkansas for this guy? Really?

Arkansas' population is around 3 milling people, counting women and children. If all of them cared about this program enough to vote, and all of them voted 12 times each, and every blessed one of the voted only for this guy, they still wouldn't reach the 38 million number.

I don't think every Arkansan voted 12 times, and some even more. Does anyone else?

Call me a skeptic.

C

[Madrigal]

Well several blogs I read yesterday night had comments with that statistic. And trust me, 12 times is nothing for hardcore fans. Teenagers literally camp land lines and vote for 4 straight hours. Let's say, for the sake of sane argumentation, that a teenager gets in a vote/min. That's 240 votes.

Now let's assume that many of them also have unlimited texting plans (and I believe AT&T customers can send in as many text messages to the IDOL phone numbers as they wish). That's 1 text (or 1 vote) every 10 seconds. You can vote for four hours. That's 1440 votes in four hours. That means, with texting alone, Kris Allen would only need 26,389 dedicated fans in his home state to achieve the 38million vote count.

Oh, and this assuming they did NOT text the message to all three of Kris Allen's numbers. That would cut down the number of dedicated fans to a measly 8,796.

I've read about people who set up 'voting parties'. Of course, by people I mean teenagers. They vote literally the entire night, sometimes using several cell phones to help their favorite contestant make it to the next round.

Having said that, 38 million does sound ridiculous. But there is absolutely NOTHING logical about wasting hours of your life voting for a reality TV show.

Don't you love AI's voting system?

Maddy (:

[Tanuki Racoon]

There are many posts (see Google) of people who are proud of voting 2k to 3k times. Really. It's shameful.

America, sadly, is not ready for a gay Goth guy with eyeliner and black fingernails. Even I was creeped out by his nails.

It's a shame because while I've watched a 3 episodes of this stupid, mind-rot show in my whole life. I watched parts of this one. GayBoy outsang StraightBoy by a lot. And after StraightBoy failed and ruined Santana's song, he should have been sent home on the spot.

Queen rocks.

[JamesSavik]

I don't watch reality TV. If I wanna see patheitc wanna-bes dying for attention, I'll just visit some of my relatives on the alchholic side of the family. Oh wait, that's both sides. My bad.

[DragonFire]

I think this has to go down as the most shocking result in Idol history. I had a suspicion something like this would happen, but to see it become reality is something else. Adam has been by far the most outstanding contestant of the entire season. Consistent and always prepared to push the boundaries a hell of a lot further than the rest would even dare.

As Pecman said, we shall see who the real winner is in 12 - 24 months after the CD and download sales have been calibrated. Who'd bet against Adam coming out on top in that poll?

[The Pecman]

I agree 100% with Wibby and Dragonfire. I confess, I've become a fan of Idol only because of perverse curiosity coupled with my intense obsession with pop culture. I started watching the show simply to find out why the #1 and #2 shows in all of America were episodes of AI, and I got caught up in the mindlessness.

I'm tellin' ya, this is an anti-gay backlash. Adam was top-rated until the little 12-year-old girls out there realized, "I can't ever fantasize about this guy, because he's not capable of returning my affections." So this wasn't a vote about talent; it was a vote about sexuality and appearance.

No question, Kris is a really cute guy and very good at what he does as a mellow pop/rock singer. But on the scale of talent, he's a 6 and Adam's a 10, by any definition.

Do a Google search and you'll see there's over a million hits of people screaming about this right now. This is a huge national debate right now.

[The Pecman]

And CNN has just added extracts of a recent interview with the two finalists on the Larry King Show, with Ryan Seacrest subbing for King. They cover the gay question in a way that's both satisfying but casual, and I thought this at least gave the two singers a chance to weigh in on the situation.

The link is here:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/23/l...ref=mpstoryview

Meanwhile, in other Hollywood celebrity news, the new biography Merv Griffin: A Life in the Closet is coming out (so to speak) on 5/25/2009. What's interesting for me is that I actually worked for Merv for a year or two in the early 1980s, and heard a lot of whispering. He was always very nice (and very wealthy), and had no temper that I ever saw, so I only have good things to say. Never saw any evidence of his private life either way... though I do remember the camera operators and production assistants on his longtime talkshow were always very good-looking young men. At the worst, I'd say Merv had great taste.

[DragonFire]

Lambert May Sign Record Deal with 19 Entertainment

http://www.examiner.com/x-11485-Adam-Lambe...9-Entertainment

Interesting, I thought Sony Entertainment had first choice on all of the contestants. Simon Fuller owns 19, maybe as creator of the show he gets his nose in the trough as well! Be fascinating to know if there is any truth to this.

[Tanuki Racoon]

And more: http://www.popeater.com/music/article/did-...-the-top/500040